A battle they couldn't win
by Ilmare-Ilse
Summary: "I-I can't do this, Steve" Danny said in a tremulous voice, knowing that all the odds were against them.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So this bunny bit me this morning and I just had to write it. So far there are no spoilers for anything in the show, but it's set after the end of season 5, so there may be some spoilers, probably in the second and final chapter.

Enjoy!

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A Battle they couldn't win.

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"I-I can't do this, Steve" Danny said in a tremulous voice, knowing that all the odds were against them.

Steve turned his exhausted eyes to look at his partner. "You can't say that, Danny. I've never known you to be a quitter! And you shouldn't start now!" He said with a shake of his head, even if he knew they were in a no-win situation.

"I'm sorry… I tried, you know I tried! It's just… I don't think I can anymore…" Danny muttered weakly.

Steve took a minute to look at the room they were in, noticing the carnage all around them and for once he had to admit that this may be one battle they just couldn't win. "What about Grace, Danno?" He asked, hoping to get his partner to fight a bit harder.

Danny had to look away, blinking a couple of times to clear his vision. "You… Could you tell her I'm sorry? That I tried?"

Steve frowned, shaking his head in denial. "No Danny. You're the one giving up the fight, so you'll have to tell her yourself…" He growled, not wanting to accept defeat so easily.

Danny whimpered in distress, but was forced to pull himself together when they heard a noise from the doorway.

"Danno? Is everything ok?" Was Grace's tentative question when she entered the room. She was shocked by all the machines scattered around and the state of her father and her uncle.

Steve moved away to allow her a clear view of her father, and once she could see him she moved to his side with a shocked gasp.

"Grace, Monkey… I'm sorry…" He said weakly, gently taking her hand in his.

Grace was a bit disgusted at the state of her father's hand, but at the time she didn't want to let go of it. "What happened, Daddy?"

Danny had to look away for a second, finally gathering the courage to look back at his little girl. "Monkey, I'm sorry. I really, really tried! But I'm afraid we're just going to have to get some cupcakes at the store, because out of all of the batches we've made, not one of them is edible…" He said sadly.

Grace looked forlornly at the flat, clunky cupcakes strewn all over the kitchen counters. "But the teacher said that we're supposed to bring home made cupcakes for the school fair!" She said in disappointment.

Danny just sighed tiredly. I'm sorry Monkey…" He said sadly. Finding a stool to sit and resting his elbows in one of the few spots on the table not covered in flour, cupcake batter or cupcake remains. He drew an exhausted sigh, exhausted and discouraged after his ordeal.

Grace took a minute to look at her father, feeling bad that she had caused him and Uncle Steve so much pain and suffering. Finally accepting that they'd have to get some cupcakes from the store, she just patted her Dad in the head in comfort. "It's alright Danno. At least your tried."

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 **TBC**

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 **A/N: Hehehe... I hope you don't hate me too much for the non existent whump!**

 **This story was greatly inspired by Irene Claire's story "Birthday Wishes", go check it out, it's great!**

 **The following chapter shoud be ready tomorrow, I was planning on doing everything in just one chapter, but you'll see that it would have seemed strange.**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading, and I'd love to hear what you think of it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews for the first chapter. This second and final part has a bit of a different tone, but I hope you like it anyway.**

 **As I said before, this story is set after season 5, so it assumes knowledge of what happened in that season, mostly about what I like to call "The Barrel", so be warned.**

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Grace found another stool to sit on and looked around the war zone Uncle Steve's kitchen had turned into. She felt a bit sorry for him, since they had borrowed his kitchen because the pipes under Danno's sink had broken last weekend and the plumber was still fixing them.

She was surprised to find a pile of cupcakes that didn't look too bad, and moved to take one in her hand. "Danno… These look fine, why did you throw them away?"

Danny lifted his head to look at the cupcakes Grace was pointing. He moved closer and picked one, knocking it against the table.

Grace almost jumped at the sharp, solid thump that came from each knock, stifling a giggle.

Danny just rolled his eyes, finally allowing himself a grin at Grace's giggle. "Sorry Monkey, I don't think your teacher would be very happy if we broke all of your classmates' teeth with these cupcakes." He said with a shrug.

Grace giggled again, moving to the opposite side of the kitchen, where the crumpled, goo-covered recipe lay forgotten. "I don't understand, the recipe looks kind of easy."

Danny looked at the hated recipe and then to his partner. "Well, we did everything it said, and the things wouldn't go puffy, then we changed the order of the ingredients, and they were the rocks I just showed you, then Julia Child over here, suggested that we switched the butter for canola oil, and then the things got all lumpy and strange…" He said with a confused shrug.

"Hey, at least they couldn't be used as weapons!" Steve muttered in annoyance.

"…and finally we just went back to the original recipe, figuring that maybe the oven was the problem, but now they're flat and slushy on the inside!" Danny finished, completely ignoring his partner's words.

Grace looked from her dad to her uncle, a bit amused by the whole mess and the usual bickering, even if she felt a bit bad about all the trouble she had caused. Still, if her dad had let her help, maybe she could have helped them with the cleanup at least. She was surprised at how calm her Uncle Steve looked, even if he was covered in flour and cupcake batter.

She focused back at the task in hand, a sudden idea coming to her head. "Danno? Why don't we call Grandma?"

Steve seemed to like Grace's idea while Danny was shaking his head before Grace had even finished speaking. "No Monkey… I'm sure we can figure this out, we can try to do another batch, and if it doesn't work, we still have time to get to the store! Besides, you know that there's a time difference with Jersey… We wouldn't want to wake your grandma up, would we?" He said in a rush, looking at any place but to Grace and Steve.

Steve just shook his head in amusement. "You know what? I really like Gracie's idea! Besides it's only 8.30 PM over there, I don't think she's sleeping, do you, Gracie?" He asked, sharing a knowing smile with her.

At Grace's happy headshake, Steve moved to where Danny's phone was sitting, safely away from the carnage of the failed cupcakes. He unblocked it and was dialing Clara Williams' number before Danny could do anything to stop him. Once the phone was ringing, Danny just stepped away, looking uncomfortable

The phone rang a couple of times and then Clara picked up. _"Hello son, how are you doing?"_ She said quietly.

Steve's grin fell a bit at the weary sound of Clara's voice. "Mrs. Williams, this is Steve McGarrett, Danny's partner?" He said gently.

Steve realized his mistake when he heard a frightened gasp coming from the line. "No, Mrs. Williams, we're here with Grace and Danny, everything is fine!" He rushed to say. "We were just having some trouble baking some cupcakes, and Gracie said that you were just the one to call in this kind of emergencies!" He said, noticing that Danny looked less and less happy by the second.

" _Oh! I just was afraid you were calling because something bad had happened, especially now that Danny doesn't call so often anymore."_ Clara said in relief. _"Well, I'd be happy to help you! What are you baking?"_ She asked, sounding a bit more like the perky woman Steve had met.

Steve's concern grew at knowing that Danny was keeping a distance from his folks, but he knew he wouldn't have the chance to do anything about it right now. "Hey, why don't I put you on speaker and then we can all hear what you're saying huh?" He said with a smile, not wanting to worry Grace or make Danny more uncomfortable than he already was.

He pressed the speaker button, leaving it on the counter.

" _Hello?"_ Said Clara in a hesitant tone.

"Hello Grandma!" said Grace in excitement.

"Hi Mom." Was Danny's less enthusiastic reply.

" _Hello! It's so good to hear you guys!"_ Clara said, sounding more excited. _"What mischief are you three up to?"_ She asked.

"Danno and Uncle Steve were trying to make cupcakes and they _completely_ ruined them!" Grace said in amusement, giving her dad a teasing look.

" _That's surprising. Have you forgotten all you learned when you were little, Son?"_ Clara asked in surprise. _"Remember how we used to spend hours in the kitchen baking cakes and muffins with your sisters and-"_

"Yeah, well…" Danny interrupted, not letting Clara finish the sentence. "I think these are not muffins, they're cupcakes, not that I can tell the difference. Besides, there must be something wrong with the damn recipe, because no matter what we do, the cupcakes turn up hard as stones…" He said in annoyance, turning away from Steve to look at the crumpled recipe on his hands.

There was silence on the line for a few seconds, but then they could hear Clara sighing. _"Alright. What kind of cupcakes are you making?"_

"We have a recipe for vanilla cupcakes covered with a chocolate thing…" Grace said, having taken the crumpled recipe from her dad's hands.

"Ok, baking powder or baking soda?" Asked Clara

"Baking powder." Said Grace.

"Butter or oil?" Asked Clara.

"Butter." Said Grace.

"Was the butter cold or at room temperature?" Asked Clara.

Grace turned to look at her father, prompting him to answer. "We took it out of the fridge to use it…" Danny said, looking at his partner in confusion.

"That's your first problem. It needs to be at room temperature, so the mixture with the sugar is not clumpy." She said.

Steve and Danny just shared another confused look.

"Did you sift the flour?" Clara asked next.

Steve and Danny looked at the phone as if Clara was talking a different language.

Grace just chuckled, moving to pick up one of the bowls covered in goo and giving it a quick wash. "Grandma, I think we'd better start over so we can go through the whole thing and that way you can tell us what we're doing wrong?" She asked, looking at Steve and her dad for support.

Danny was about to open his mouth to object to the idea, but Steve butted in, as always. "I think it's a great idea!" He said, moving to get another batch of ingredients.

It took about an hour and a half, between over mixing things, too cold things, too warm things and the poor batch that got burnt, but finally they'd managed to get 24 decent looking cupcakes covered in chocolate.

Steve had kept an eye on his partner, watching him go through a number of emotions while they were cooking. He was sad to see Danny blinking repeatedly at some point, even if there was no more flour in the air to bother him, but he was also relieved to see him smiling at how much Grace was enjoying herself.

They had finished the call with Clara a few minutes before, after she extracted a promise to call more often, and another of them baking her some cupcakes the next time they visited. Steve was glad that Clara sounded much better after helping them with the cupcakes, and he could tell that some weight had lifted off Danny's shoulder at hearing his mother sounding a bit happier.

Grace cheered in excitement after she finished icing the last of the cupcakes, and Danny and Steve couldn't help but to celebrate with her. She moved to give Danny a hug that he happily returned, and then she turned to give another big hug to Steve. "Thank you for letting us borrow your kitchen, Uncle Steve!"

Steve smiled, patting Grace's back. "Any time, Gracie!" He said happily.

After that, it was Danny's turn. He moved closer to his partner, giving him an exasperated look. "Yeah, yeah… Thank you for the kitchen." He said with his usual snark. "And… And about the help as well…" He said, suddenly finding his shoes very interesting.

Steve smiled happily. "You're very welcome, Danno." He said, opening his arms, requesting another hug.

Danny looked back at his partner and shook his head in amusement, giving Grace a look before he moved to hug Steve. Steve patted Danny's back, not realizing that Grace was moving behind him. The feeling of something warm and oozy suddenly falling on his head and dripping all over him made him jump away. "Sh-argh! What the hell is this!? Why'd you do that!?" He growled, using his hand to wipe some chocolatey goo from his eye.

Danny and Grace were laughing heartily. "Well, according to the recipe, it's _Chocolate Ganache_!" Danny said with a smirk. "And we were just following my mom's instructions, right Monkey?"

Grace could barely breathe from all the laughing. "Yup! She said that the top had to be _completely_ covered with it!" She said before bursting into giggles.

Steve shook his head in amusement, wiping some more chocolate from his face. Looking at Grace and Danny laughing, even if it was at his expense, made him happy, so he'd take the chocolate for now. Soon he would find a way to get even.

A couple of hours ago he was sure they were fighting a hopeless battle, but as it turned out, just like so many times in the last few years, all they had needed to turn things around was a Williams (or two) as backup.

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 **The End**


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